ē Background Information. 141Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, "the Red Earl", son and heir, was born 2 Sep 1243, at Christchurch, Hants, being under age at his father's death, was a ward of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford. On 22 Mar 1262/3 he refused to take the oath of allegiance to Prince Edward, and in May acted with Montfort in the Oxford Parliament, and became recognized as one of the leaders in the Baron's party. The honor of Clare was granted to him, 8 Jul 1263, and on 3 Aug, though yet under age, the King having taken his homage, he had livery of his lands in Wales, livery of the rest of his lands being given 24 Sep 1264, he being then of age.

The Earl married, as his 1st wife, in the spring of 1253, Alice (contract dated 2 Feb 1252/3), daughter of Hugh de Lusignan (le Brun), Count of la Marche and Angouleme (uterine brother of Henry III), by Yolande, daughter of PierreMauclerk, duc de Bretagne. She, who is said to have become a hypochondriac, procured a divorce from her husband, judgement being given at Norwich 18 Jul 1271. Gilbert married, as his 2nd wife, 1290, Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward I, by Eleanor de Castile. On this marriage the Earl surrendered the greater part of his estates to the King, who granted them back to Gilbert and Joan and their issue, with other remainders. He died at Monmouth Castle, 7 Dec 1295, and was buried 22 Dec 1295, at Tewkesbury, on the left side of his grandfather Gilbert. On 20 Jan 1295/6 his widow was given livery of all her lands.

ē Background Information. Earl of Gloucester and Hertford.~-Cokayne's Complete Peerage (Berkeley, p.129), identifies him as the father of Isabel. (Berkeley, p.130), identifies him as the father of Eleanor.

~From Michael Altschul, A Baronial Family in Medieval England: The Clares, 1217-1314, pp. 34-36, Baltimore MD (Johns Hopkins Press) 1965: "The eldest son and heir, Gilbert, was born on September 2, 1243, and was called Gilbert Goch ("the Red") after the fiery color of his hair. The Red Earl had seisin of his estates in 1263-64 and was undoubtedly the single most powerful magnate of the realm, in the later years of Henry III's reign and under King Edward I, until his death on December 7, 1295.

"Like his father Richard, Earl Gilbert the Red was married twice. In 1253 RICHARD arranged for the marriage of his son, then about ten years old, to Henry III's niece Alice, daughter of Hugh de Lusignan, count of La Marche and Angouleme. Although she had two daughters, the match proved to be both a personal and a political failure. Gilbert and Alice were formally separated in 1271 and the marriage was finally annulled in 1285.

Even before the annulment, Earl Gilbert and King Edward I had discussed the possibility of a marriage into the royal family. In May 1290, after a long delay pending the annulment and the necessity for a subsequent papal dispensation, Gilbert married Edward's fifth child and second surviving daughter Joan, who had been born at Acre in Palestine in 1272. Joan of Arce was to outlive the Red Earl by some twelve years, but between 1290 and his death in 1295 they had a son and heir, the last Earl Gilbert, and three daughters, the eventual co-heiresses of the Clare inheritance.

"Gilbert de Clare, the "Red Earl" of Gloucester and Hertford, after Simon de Montfort, was the single most important figure in the later stages of the baronial opposition to Henry III. From his father Earl Richard, he inherited not only the great Clare estates and lordships in England, Wales, and Ireland, but also a position of leadership among the magnates of theRealm. He was destined to play an even more decisive role in the civil wars which determined the fate of the struggle between king and baronage than his father had played in the initial stages of the movement for reform.

"On December 7 1295, Gilbert died at Edmund de Lancaster's castle of Monmouth, and was buried two week later at Tewkesbuty Abbey."

Gilbert married Joan "of Acre" PlantagenÍt, daughter of Edward I (Longshanks) PlantagenÍt King Of England and Leonor FernŠndez de Castilla, in May 1290 in London, England.141 (Joan "of Acre" PlantagenÍt was born in 1272 in Acre, Palestine, died on 23 Apr 1307 in Clare, Suffolk, England and was buried on 26 Apr 1307 in Austin Friar's C, Clare, Suffolk, England.)